The conventional method of making articles of the foregoing type, viz. containers of contiguous muti-colored segments of compressed powder cosmetic material, comprises first forming a small, shallow pan, usually of a durable, easily formed material such as aluminum, for example, and arranging a multiplicity of such empty pans on a work surface to form a juxtaposed array of rows and columns. A first pattern or mask having perforations corresponding to the shape and location of a first colored segment is positioned over the array of pans and loose cosmetic powder is poured into the pans through the perforations in the mask. A second mask having perforations corresponding to the shape and location of a second colored segment in each pan is then substituted for the first mask and loose powder of a second color is poured through the perforations in the second mask. This process is continued with as many different perforated masks and colored powders of cosmetic material as there are colored segments desired to be in each pan. The pans are then moved to a conventional pressing station where one-by-one the powder in each pan is compressed under a flat piston having a shape corresponding to the pan. One disadvantage of this prior method is that the use of a series of different perforated masks corresponding to the different colored segments in each pan is tedious and time consuming thereby limiting the speed in which the multi-colored segmented pans of compressed cosmetic powder may be formed. This, in turn, leads to a relatively high unit cost of such items to the consumer. In addition, the use of such masks makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to produce sharp and uniform lines of demarcation among the final pressed multi-colored segments in each pan.